Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Colombia and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Sister Nancy to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Theoretical Girls. All the underground hits.
All Colin Newman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mantronix record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Isaac Hayes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Harpers Bizarre,
Kas Product,
Glenn Branca,
Pantytec,
Ornette Coleman,
The Beau Brummels,
The Fortunes,
Leonard Cohen,
Qualms,
Bobby Sherman,
Malaria!,
Das Ding,
Soulsonic Force,
The Smiths,
Man Eating Sloth,
Sexual Harrassment,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The American Breed,
Eric Copeland,
Pet Shop Boys,
Lucky Dragons,
Goldenarms,
Todd Terry,
Cameo,
Siglo XX,
The Misunderstood,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
DJ Style,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Shadows of Knight,
Television,
Kevin Saunderson,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Fatback Band,
Gong,
Dorothy Ashby,
Agent Orange,
Banda Bassotti,
Henry Cow,
The Saints,
The Invisible,
Chrome,
Inner City,
Talk Talk,
The Grass Roots,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Derrick Morgan,
John Foxx,
Bauhaus,
Erasure,
Marvin Gaye,
Susan Cadogan,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Kinks,
Blossom Toes,
Bizarre Inc.,
Yazoo,
Amon Düül,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.